RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
The Dispatch wrote
AEP wants you to pick up storm’s tab
Saturday, September 27, 2008
BY DAN GEARINO, MARK NIQUETTE AND SPENCER HUNT
With the government’s storm-response tab topping $34 million and hundreds of thousands of people struggling to clear trees and replace spoiled food after the Sept. 14 wind storm, American Electric Power is thinking about billing its customers for the cost of restoring their power.
Joseph Hamrock, president and chief executive of AEP Ohio, said yesterday that the fee is an option, but he said it’s too early to speculate about the details.
For some perspective, the 2004 ice storm led to a roughly $1-per-month fee for 12 months for a typical customer. The ice storm affected about half as many people as the 700,000 AEP Ohio customers who lost power two weeks ago. The prospect of a surcharge on customers, many of whom sat in the dark for days, doesn’t sit well with the state’s consumer advocate.
AEP reported $1.1 billion in profit on revenue of $13.4 billion last year in an 11-state territory. In the first six months of this year, AEP has $854 million in profit on $7 billion in revenue. AEP’s Ohio utilities accounted for about $1.2 billion of that revenue. Before the storm, AEP already was making plans to ask its customers to pay more. AEP has a rate proposal filed with the PUCO that would raise Ohio rates 15 percent in each of the next three years.
Related Stories:
- Got power? If not, you could be waiting 6 more days
Fridges are a pretty new thing compared to the history of food.
So is not getting sick from eating improperly stored food, or throwing away a lot of “leftovers”.
go fig.
Smaller sizes that would be consumed in one setting or made into something more value added like how I use milk now. Drink it all now or turn it into cornbread or butter.
Which means more packaging.
A.
Smaller sizes that would be consumed in one setting or made into something more value added like how I use milk now. Drink it all now or turn it into cornbread or butter.
Which means more packaging.
A.
Yeah I thought about that too with smaller sizes. Mike Reed, please tell us more about your fridge less period.
somehow i’m guessing that the life-benefit/power-used ratio on a fridge is far far greater than that from a TV or, the way many people use them, a computer.
Hell. an air conditioner uses *massive* power and is something most healthy people can easily survive without.
cyclist’s problem solved by solar refrigeration:
http://www.sundanzer.com/Home.html
Don’t you live with merc? Does he want to do that too, because it seems like he might be pissed if he comes home and his fridge is gone?
Half the food in that fridge goes bad before it’s eaten anyway.
Don’t you live with merc? Does he want to do that too, because it seems like he might be pissed if he comes home and his fridge is gone?
Half the food in that fridge goes bad before it’s eaten anyway.
I had that problem pretty bad for a while.
One way I found to solve that was to set aside a day (such as monday) as “leftovers day” with a rain-day of Tuesday. On those days you (yep you guessed it) plan to eat leftovers.
The “rain day” covers you for those times when something comes up.
It’s simply amazing how much money/time/resources you can save simply by making sure you don’t throw away food.
On another note: here is another kitchen tip I just found that I think is a REALLY spiffy idea that I am amazed I did not think of myself – http://lifehacker.com/5055631/earmark-new-and-used-kitchen-sponges
I’ve never bothered to compare them, but I wonder if a more easily workable solution could be to replace a full 20+ cubic foot fridge with a tiny 1.5-2.0 cubic foot mini-fridge? I’m sure they’ve got to use less energy, and while you can convert the bulk of your groceries to fresh items, you can still have enough room for those few essential things that you need to keep cold (like Snowville Milk and a few cans of Busch).
Might not be a bad compromise without having to go all the way to the extreme.
Might not be a bad compromise without having to go all the way to the extreme.
+1. With the caveat that some of the cheap mini fridges are so poorly insulated that they burn electricity like crazy
Small fridges will also flucuate wildly in temperature due to their smaller volume. Leave it open for a tiny bit and the temp will rise, probably enough to hasten milk spoilage or aid other weebeastie action.
I suspect strongly that the time-savings + potential fuel costs involved in continually re-stocking will dwarf the energy cost savings particularly in modern, efficient fridges. Not to mention being able to buy in larger quantities and reduce packaging has a larger effect if you are thinking ‘green.’
A.
FIGHT THE POWER BY … uh … USING THE POWER!
That’s subversive, if you ask me.
A.
+1 to this.
Most fridges today really aren’t that environmentally-unfriendly. Watch what you put in said fridge for environmental concerns, and don’t worry too much about the fridge itself. Also, as Rockmaster said, just plan to eat leftovers quickly. I’d also add not forgetting about things that you put in the crisper drawer.
I do occasionally have to throw food out because I live alone and it’s almost impossible not to over-buy (I simply don’t go through loaves of bread fast enough to avoid that last few pieces from getting moldy, for example … I’d have to eat at least one sandwich every day and sometimes two, since I buy mostly locally-made breads with minimal or no preservatives). That said, you can keep it to a minimum by just being willing to eat the same thing multiple nights in a row, meaning clearing out leftovers quickly, and keeping grocery purchases to express-lane size.
FIGHT THE POWER BY … uh … USING THE POWER!
That’s subversive, if you ask me.
It’s sort of the premise behind Channel Zero http://www.ait-planetlar.com/cz.shtml
I’ve had pretty good success at being fridgeless once or twice. I kept up a “pantry kitchen” of mostly dry goods (beans, flour, sugars, etc.) in Mason jars, then bought my produce every few days. I lived close to a market and just bought my meat before I ate it. Some cheeses do not need to be refrigerated. Good quality farm eggs can be left unrefrigerated if eaten within a reasonable time. I’m not a big milk drinker so that wasn’t a problem. Easy peasy. Really inexpensive, healthy and practical. If I lived alone I would definitely try it again.
Merc– that is how Nancy keeps her kitchen.
I think I went without refrigeration once for three days straight at cross country camp at Camp Falling Rock out in Licking County. It was torture. :lol:
if you guys want to really go retro you could find a natural spring and build a spring house over it. Just a stone hut over the spring, that channels the water out and keeps the place cool. Keep it tightly closed and it’ll stay about 50 deg with a good water flow.
Settlers did that for centuries here to keep their food from growing rot and killing them. After all, if you can’t just drive out off the farm to buy your groceries food storage is essential.
Also– everyone keeps responding as if this is unthinkable. It’s simply an idea, or an ideal to aim for. A possibility. Doesn’t mean you have to do it.
I’d like to do it, though. I think refrigerators are like morgues for food. Reminds me of when I worked at the flower shop: most of the business was for funerals, and most of the flowers were from South America. Refrigerated, like dead bodies. Just ridiculous.
During the power outage, I made a memory I’ll never forget. Walking down a street at dusk, with everyone out on their porches in the candlelight, talking or playing instruments. Off in the distance, we heard someone playing the piano, it was beautiful. I could see the stars and hear crickets. No one could just cocoon into their homes, we all had to depend on one another because we were all in the same boat.
Also something else I keep noticing: no matter how dire Wall Street looks on any given day, people are still walking their dogs and going to work. Life does exist outside the dollar, the powerline and the refrigerator. Again, simply an idea. Certainly nothing to get all that inflamed about.
I fear you misinterpret good-natured banter for inflammation.
No, most of you don’t seem to be inflamed. Maybe I overstated.
But certainly, a few folks had their panties wadded.
Refridgeration is really tough to avoid. Even if you don’t have a fridge in your house, if you’re buying dairy or meat (or most vegetables) you’re buying something that has been refridgerated in processing, in transit and likely at the point of sale.
And just to flip the other side of this coin, refridgeration has saved many lives, billions of hours of time, and has increased the diversity of foods and quality of nutrition that average people consume. Think of all the meat that doesn’t have to be salted to be preserved. Think of the nutritious vegetables we can get during the winter in Ohio, whereas without refridgeration, we’d be stuck with limp, worthless canned veggies. It’s one reason that lifespan increased so rapidly in the early 20th century.